Rutgers to treat North Carolina to a bigger serving of its new-look offense

Robert Sciarrino/The Star-LedgerRutgers fullback Joe Martinek, who had only three touches last week against North Carolina Central, is expected to see more action on Saturday when the Scarlet Knights face North Carolina.

New businesses have them all the time. Apparently, new offensive coordinators do, too.

Frank Cignetti’s anticipated debut at calling the shots for Rutgers last week against North Carolina Central — eight months after he was hired to revive the offense — could best be described as a “soft” opening.

That should change Saturday when the Scarlet Knights visit North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Even head coach Greg Schiano admitted as much Wednesday.

“I think you’ll see more,” he said of his offense. “A little bit.”

Cignetti, brought in specifically to return Rutgers to its pro-style ways — much like Pittsburgh last year when he was overseeing the Panthers’ offense — has yet to put his stamp on the Scarlet Knights. With the entire offensive playbook in, according to quarterback Chas Dodd, that just appears to be a matter of waiting for the right moment.

Like a tough road test against a quality Atlantic Coast Conference opponent.

“We have a lot of stuff in our arsenal,” said Dodd. “It all depends on who we’re playing and what kind of stuff we need for that game. If we ended up not showing a lot last week it was because of the type of game plan we had in.”

What Rutgers showed in the 48-0 season-opening victory against the Eagles, an overmatched Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference opponent, was balance between the run game (41 plays) and the passing game (34 attempts).

That doesn’t figure to change, but the hallmarks of the pro-style approach — quick hitters in the passing game, just enough vertical tries to keep the defense honest, swing passes to backs, a downhill running game — were kept to the bare essentials a week ago.

Fullback Joe Martinek is one player who could be more involved against the Tar Heels than he was last week (three touches then). The same with running back Jeremy Deering, finally healthy again after being limited to two carries in the opener.

Rutgers also completed just one pass to its tight ends and one to a slot receiver.

So this was an offense that didn’t need to get past the first few pages of the playbook last week.

“What we have in — and we pretty much have everything in now, since we started the season — we’re good with,” said Dodd. “There are always things to work on. But as far as everyone knowing the offense and being able to run it, I feel like we’re in very good shape.”

One area Rutgers knows it needs to be more productive in is the running game, which produced just 137 yards and a pedestrian 3.3 yards per carry average in the opener.

“We have to be more physical as an offensive line and we have to do a better job of blocking so our backs can see holes and burst through them,” said right guard Antwan Lowery. “We have the ability to be a good running team. But we have to go out and do it.”

Schiano hasn’t revealed how his four running backs will split carries, though Deering is likely to play a prominent role because of his game-changing ability.

“More. Hopefully, more,” Schiano said when asked about Deering’s workload. “We’ll see how he feels. He’s had a great week of practice so far.”